Mission to update measurements dating to the 18th century

NOAA Ship Fairweather
begins a 30-day survey mission in the Arctic this week, scheduled to
check a sparsely measured 1,500-nautical mile coastal corridor from
Dutch Harbor, Alaska, north through the Bering Strait and east to the
Canadian border.

The mission will collect needed information to determine
NOAA’s future charting survey projects in the Arctic and will cover sea
lanes that were last measured by Captain James Cook in 1778.

“Much of Alaska’s coastal area has never had full bottom surveys to
measure water depths,” said Cmdr. James Crocker, commanding officer of Fairweather,
and chief scientist of the party. “A tanker, carrying millions of
gallons of oil, should not be asked to rely on measurements gathered in
the 19th century. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what navigators have
to do, in too many cases. NOAA is changing that.”

NOAA has made it a priority to update the nautical charts
needed by commercial shippers, tankers, passenger vessels, and fishing
fleets transiting the Alaskan coastline in ever-greater numbers. In June
2011, Coast Survey issued the Arctic Nautical Charting Plan, a major effort to update Arctic nautical charts for the shipping lanes, approaches, and ports along the Alaskan coast. Full release